Some of President Obama's guests at Tuesday's State of the Union address are political donors. But not all their contributions went to him or his party.
Continue readingExecutive branch data listings should be human readable
Most federal agencies have complied with the President's open data executive order — but some are dragging their feet when it comes to putting their data inventories into a more human readable format.
Continue readingTo the donors go the spoils: Obama renominates bundlers to cushy overseas posts
President Barack Obama has renominated some of his most generous supporters to some of the plushest ambassadorships.
Continue readingObama calls for tech support
Many of the tech executives that President Obama met with today have been generous donors to his campaigns.
Continue readingSomehow fitting, in a Washington sort of way…
What Daschle actually does is a matter of guesswork, but apparently he does it very well.
Continue readingHired guns: K Street revolvers shot blanks against NRA artillery
Gun control groups made a big investment in professional lobbyists after the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting but even the K Street top guns were no match for the National Rifle Association.
Continue readingHow to Read The US National Action Plan
Today, the Obama administration released its second National Action Plan (NAP), the administration’s plan to promote transparency for the coming two years - but does it really commit to open government?
Continue readingLooking Towards Next Week’s Open Data Executive Order Deadline
November 30th marks the first major deadline for agency compliance with President Obama’s Open Data Executive Order and accompanying Memorandum M-13-13. In addition to representing an important step in the march towards open government and proper data management, this is an opportunity to evaluate agencies, identify best practices, and advocate for change. The Executive Order will continue to be implemented over the coming months and years, but agencies should, and will, be judged on how much effort they put into this first deadline. The level of agency compliance now will be a clear representation of how seriously they take the Executive Order.
Guidance issued alongside the Executive Order provides a strong roadmap for agency participation, but leaves some important points up for interpretation. Notably, agencies are given too much leeway to keep even the existence of their data secret.
Continue readingUnions, Obama dark money group press GOP on immigration
A new fight over immigration appears to be brewing, but it likely has more to do with the 2014 elections than with any real chance legislation will be passed.
House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, appeared to close that door on Wednesday, when he ruled out any negotiations over the sweeping immigration law the Senate passed in June. On the same day, Organizing for Action, the dark money committee that grew out of President Barack Obama's campaign, sent an email to supporters calling on them to pressure Republican lawmakers to take up the immigration bill. The committee suggested targeting Rep ...
Continue readingEvaluating the National Action Plan 2.0 Freedom of Information Act Proposals
During this week’s Open Government Partnership meeting in London, the Obama Administration announced the broad strokes of its National Action Plan 2.0 Freedom of Information Act reforms.
The Administration’s announced plan has several goals: the implementation of an online FOIA portal, drafting of a unified set of FOIA regulations, creation of an interagency working group and an advisory committee to improve FOIA processing, and improved FOIA trainings for agency employees.
While these plans do give the transparency community reason to be cautiously optimistic, it is important to note that there is no mention of proactive disclosure anywhere in the plan. Proactive disclosure is integral to any effective transparency plan. It meaningfully increases public access while easing the burden on FOIA processing by eliminating duplicative request processing.
As for the efficacy of the goals included in the NAP 2.0 plan, the new FOIA proposals could be very positive or could make things even more difficult for requesters - the devil really is in the details.
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